Blue Jasmine

"Blue Jasmine" is the latest film from legendary filmmaker Woody Allen. While not up to par overall with recent Allen flicks like "Vicky Christina Barcelona" and "Midnight In Paris" Jasmine does offer a tour de force performance by lead actress Cate Blanchett as well as solid supporting performances which comes as expected from Allen films. This reviewer is sort of a late bloomer to the work of Allen only fully becoming appreciative of his films with his more recent work.

The story is set mostly in present day San Francisco, a first for an Allen film and tells the story of Jasmine, played by Blanchett who comes to S.F. from New York after the death of her husband played by the always dependable Alec Baldwin who was in prison for a Bernie Madoff like financial scandal that lead to his suicide while in prison. Jasmine moves in with her adoptive sister Ginger played by British actress Sally Hawkins. Jasmine herself has recently suffered a nervous breakdown of sorts and the movie is basically her story of trying to adapt from her life of luxury and riches to trying to pick up the pieces and try to survive in a life of normalcy.

Allen has been making films since the 70's, he has always written female characters well from Diane Keaton in his most famous movie "Annie Hall" to most recently Scarlett Johansson in films like "Match Point" and the before mentioned "Vicky Christina Barcelona". Allen is pushing 80 years old and while his movies are generally set in modern times I often wonder if he actually still does all his own writing, be that as his may the script here is solid as usual even if with a 90 minute run time it does run long in places and some plot points like Jasmines relationship with her stepson fall flat and take away from the overall story. The dialogue remains sharp and timely and while this is much more a drama than comedy there are enough chuckles among the melodrama.

Blanchett is most assuredly getting an Academy Award nomination for her role here and if the remaining years female performances don't show something outstanding she is clearly the frontrunner to take home her second statue. Jasmine is either crazy or ignorant to the fact that her life is changed and Blanchett doesn't play either side to the point of parody or imitation of past performances in other films, its sad, depressing and funny all in one. The rest of the cast is filled with also great performances from Baldwin as well as character actor Bobby Canavale and an out of nowhere subtle performance from former 1980's stand up comedian mega star Andrew Dice Clay. Clay's performance is really really good, its unfortunate though that he only has a few scenes in the film or he could easily be looking at a best supporting actor nomination for himself which would be in the vein of Mickey Rourke getting his nomination for "The Wrestler" but its unlikely to happen. Ahead of seeing the movie I was looking most forward to seeing another stand up comedian, Louis C.K. but again while he is very good with what little screen time he is given I was looking for more humor from his character, this could be just the expectation from myself as I am a huge fan of his stand up and TV work on "Louie".

So overall unless you are interested in seeing great performances or are a fan of Woody Allen either from past or present "Blue Jasmine" is probably not the film for you. If you are interested though rent "Annie Hall" or "Hannah and Her Sisters" or "Vicky Christina Barcelona" so you get an idea of what to expect from this auteur. It will be well worth your time.